We received 29 contest entries this quarter and were impressed by the creativity and probability know-how the entries showed!

Winner: Robert Thompson, A Better Way to Reform the Electoral College

Runner Up: Serena Jing, Goodbye Mr. Chips: a Look at Surname Extinction

Runner Up: Callum Burgess, Using Statistics to Drum (Video)

The final problem set is now available. You will implement two machine learning algorithms, Naive Bayes and Logistic Regression. You will then use these algorithms to make predictions on heart tomography, Netflix movies and ancestry.

Note: We will cover neural nets as part of our intro to deep learning lecture this week, so you can (and should) feel free to skip problem 3 for now.

The CLT says that if $Y$ is the sum of $n$ iid random variables (which all have expectation $\mu$ and variance $\sigma^2$) then:

The proof is beyond the scope of the class. A friendly CS109 student from a few quarters ago (Sophia Furfine) made a video of the proof in case you are curious!

We have released a short list of anonymous, suggested responses for all previous Concept Checks. These entries were selected anonymously from your answers this quarter, so props if you see your response listed! Go ahead and check out the link here: Community Answers to Concept Checks (requires Stanford login + Stanford Google login).

As a side note, there are many other possible answers for all of these questions! These are just example answers that will help you understand the material more.

Hope everyone enjoyed the midterm! The Week 5 Concept Check deadline has been pushed back to Wednesday, October 30th, at 11:59PM.

Problem Set #4 has been released! It has you predict users based on biometric keystrokes. The pset clearly delineates the questions that you should do before the midterm :-).

Problem Set #3 has been released! It uses real probability density functions from the IPCC Climate Change report, and has you analyze a bloom filter (a probabilistic datastructure).

Problem Set #2 has been released! Calculate the updated belief of the location of a cell phone and hypothesize the genetic relationship between bats and whether they carry Ebola. Here is a Latex template for pset 2.

In addition to your Section preferences, you should be filling out the Weekly Concept Checks. Please make sure you finish the Week 1 Concept check by Tuesday, October 1, at 1:00PM PDT.

Update (9/28/19): Session slides and recording are now up!

For those of you interested in learning/reviewing Python 3, Sonja will be giving a Python tutorial on Friday, September 27, 3:30-4:20pm in Hewlett 102. We will try our best to record this session. We recommend looking at the Jupyter notebook beforehand. If you need help getting set up, this Piazza post should be a good starting point.

Update (9/30/19): Section assignments have been released. If you did not receive an email, please contact the staff mailing list. For any other section scheduling questions, please fill out the Late & Swap form ASAP. Section starts this week.

Please sign up for section by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/aRqxErEBWuDxm5uy6.

Once a week you are going to meet in a small group section. We are going to find the best weekly time for everyone. Section signups will close on Saturday, September 28th at 11:59pm. Preferences are not first come first serve. For more information, visit the Section Attendance page.

Problem Set #1 has been released! It is due next Friday, October 4th at 1:00pm. Submission will be via Gradescope with entry code M7B45K. Office hours will start tomorrow (Thursday), and the office hours calendar will have times and locations.

If you're new to Gradescope, you can join the class by going to https://gradescope.com/ and clicking the button in the top right marked "Sign Up." Select "Student," then enter the entry code, your full name, email address, and 8-digit student id.

You are encouraged to write up your problem sets using LaTeX. Templates for each Problem Set are located on their respective webpage. See this intro to LaTeX, and the LaTeX code used to generate it. Though you may install LaTeX, it is often much easier to use an online LaTeX editor. A great option is: overleaf.com.

We put together some handouts to help you understand where we are going to go in CS109 and how we plan to get there.

The Administrivia handout has details on course logistics. Read this to get a sense for what CS109 is going to entail.

The Course Schedule page shows you the topics that we are going to cover in CS109 and the corresponding readings. We will also post materials from lecture on the schedule page.

The Staff / Office Hours page has contact information for TAs and the office hour calendar. Office hours will start Thursday, September 26.

Once the quarter starts, you will need to sign up for a weekly 50-minute discussion section. Details on how to sign up for section will be provided during the first week of class.

Welcome to CS109! We are looking forward to a fun quarter. Class starts Monday, September 23, at 1:30pm in Cubberley Auditorium.